Judy Cuff-Alvarado said she always liked human biology. “I thought it was for me,” she said.
Cuff-Alvarado completed graduate school and worked in clinical physical therapy for about 15 years. After having her first child, she entered De Anza College’s physical therapy assistant program in 1996 until the program ended in 2005.
The college then moved her to the biology department, where she established a legacy as a beloved and impactful professor for 20 years.
While Cuff-Alvarado said her college days were “successful” and stressless, she said she noticed how academics affected other students.
“I witnessed other kids who were marginalized, and that always felt like injustice,” Cuff-Alvarado said.
Cuff-Alvarado said this experience heavily influences her teaching approach. She appreciates the smaller size of community colleges because she believes it makes it easier for students to connect with her.
“She’s just always there when the student needs them,” Kassem Lim, 19, statistics and data science major, said. He took Cuff-Alvarado’s introductory biology class fall 2024.
Cuff-Alvarado said she enjoys supporting students and learning about their lives.
“I do love it when I have a couple students latch on, a conversation starts and a relationship starts,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “We have a communal laugh … that’s quite rewarding.”
The bond Cuff-Alvarado creates with her students allows deeper and more personal connections.
“A lot of (students) come to me with really sad stories about sort of educational traumas in the system,” Cuff-Alvarado said. She additionally said the K-12 system can break many people, but community college is “a good place to heal.”
Cuff-Alvarado said even the struggling students, often those who have experienced injustices in their lives, can be helped throughout the quarter. She said she approaches them with empathy, knowing they are putting trust in her.
“My students have to courageously trust the professor in their classroom to take care of them,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “I can use different words. I can speak slower, or I can repeat things more. I just sort of evaluate, ‘What can I do?’”
Eventually, she said, they will turn around. “Invariably, I crack them. Invariably they come in and they start feeling better,” Cuff-Alvarado said.
Cuff-Alvarado is a mentor to students and other professors alike. One in particular formed a 15-year long companionship with her.
Jason Bram is a De Anza biology instructor, who had Cuff-Alvarado on his hiring committee. Bram said he was overwhelmed and confused by De Anza compared to his previous, smaller college, and that Cuff-Alvarado helped him get started, and their friendship grew from there.
“We have been friends ever since I got here in 2010,” Bram said. “She taught me the ropes about De Anza. She’s amazingly wise.”
Bram said much of their friendship was about sharing wisdom. They developed the introductory biology course together, and Bram values Cuff-Alvarado’s life advice.
“We (Bram and I) work very well together,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “There’s lots of laughing, lots of lightheartedness. He has my back. I have his back.”
The two discussed retirement for years before this summer.
Cuff-Alvarado said that while she has become more fatigued, her career isn’t fully over for her. She values the social connections with her students and Bram through her position.
“It’s this phase in life where I think it’s good for my health to work less,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “(But) I loved this job. I found the job that really matched me.”
Cuff-Alvarado plans to return as part-time faculty, teaching “maybe one or two classes a year after I retire.”
Lim said he enjoyed Cuff-Alvarado’s group projects, interactive experiments and teaching style. He described her as a jokester with a nurturing attitude toward her students.
“It’s not the traditional way of just pen and paper and looking at the whiteboard,” Lim said. “Her personality is what makes her class so much fun.”
Bram said Cuff-Alvarado’s legacy extends beyond her students and him, as she also mentored other biology department faculty.
“She’s kind of the glue that holds the department together. Everyone likes her and she instigates social events,” Bram said. “I will miss every aspect of her, but I also know that she’s going to be in my life … we’re going to be friends forever.”
“I have nothing but gratitude,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “I consider myself really, really lucky to have had this job.”
Cuff-Alvarado said her love and support for her students is timeless, and she has many high hopes for them.
“I hope that my students leave here believing that science is not just for some people,” Cuff-Alvarado said. “Biology is for everyone; you are biology. What makes you beautiful is your biology.”
